Projects & Activities
Sustainability in Education: Responsibility in Developing Teachers and Teacher Leaders
Increasingly, I am aware of how the dissemination of American ideals in education brings sustainability issues to teachers and their communities. This is true not just for international teachers who come to the United States to understand our educational systems but also to teachers in atypical settings in the US as well.
I am interested in growing conversations about how to best disseminate ideas on education while respecting the cultural, social, economic, and political contexts in which teachers work and finding solutions that do not disrupt the often fragile networks among those contexts.
Teacher Education as Innovation: Developing a Framework for Examining Teacher Education
IAlong with colleagues from the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Reich College of Education, I am currently working to develop a framework for examining teacher education. Taking a new lens and using a systematic means to explore social systems involved in the work of teacher education, we are embarking on a self study using our emerging framework.
A link to the presentation at the 2016 meeting of AACTE and additional information can be found here.
TEAMS: Teaching for Equity in Appalachia in Mathematics & Science
The College of Arts and Sciences has received a $1.2 million Robert Noyce Scholarship Grant, allowing us to provide qualified students with scholarships supporting their studies to become secondary mathematics or science teachers. In this project, we focus on preparing teachers for work in high need schools while providing a rich program of coursework. Students receive $10,000 per year for up to three years of support, and in exchange, they agree to teach in high needs schools for two years per year of funding. (Funded by NSF DUE-1540830)
2010 - present
2010 - present
Appalachian Mathematics Partnership
The Appalachian Mathematics Partnership, or AMP, project just concluded its third year of funding after providing professional development and other opportunities to 14 counties in western North Carolina. Highlights of this project included the development of a framework for meaningful professional development that put three steps to the progression of experiencing rich mathematics, evaluating the components of that instruction, and then planning for that instruction in their own classrooms. The steps are to Experience-Examine-Engage in professional development. More on this framework was presented at the 2013 MSP Conference in Washington, D.C., and a book chapter has been accepted that generally describes our partnership and approach. Additional information can be found at this link.
Mathematical Modeling - IMSPC Grant
Stemming from the mathematical modeling working group in the AMP project, we proposed and received funding to explore the work of implementing modeling into the K-12 and post-secondary classrooms. The project produced a framework for considering students' progressions in learning and implementing mathematical modeling and conducted professional development on modeling with a group in June.